


A Friendly Reminder

by Mitsukkii



Series: Baby on Board [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Caregiver!Hunk, Hunk is a good mom, Little!Lance, Littles are Known AU, Non-Sexual Age Play, little!Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:07:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21904543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mitsukkii/pseuds/Mitsukkii
Summary: Its rare for Keith and Lance's headspaces to sync up at the same time, but when it happens its either really good or really bad. Hunk just hopes no one cries today.
Relationships: Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Lance (Voltron)
Series: Baby on Board [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1396456
Comments: 12
Kudos: 98





	A Friendly Reminder

Hunk watched Keith frown as a stuffed animal was thrusted into his direction for the umpteenth time this morning, his pacifier bobbing in irritation as he hugged his blankie to his chest.

“Keith! ‘yer playin’ it wrong!” exclaimed A very pouty Lance, arms crossing when Keith gave him a confused stare in return. The littles…well.. Lance was especially rowdy today and Keith looked like he might be close to tears.

“Lance, be nice to Keith. He might be a little too small to understand this game.” Hunk called from his position on the couch. 

Usually, when Lance was little Hunk got a lot of sorting done in the dusty amalgamation that was the altean storage hall. The 5 year old was usually fine entertaining himself with a bit of supervision and attention but today…there was a little more matinence involved, especially with littles like Keith, that ran a little smaller, if he wanted to avoid a full-scale meltdown. Hunk understood that Lance was probably just excited to have a playmate, but Keith was already anxious in headspace as it was.

Closing one of the many musty boxes he had in the living area, he walked over to the colorful fuzzy blanket the boys were playing on. 

“How about we play a different game?” Hunk asked with a smile. As a neutral, the WAY one simply phrased things was important. Without the commanding presence of being a caregiver, most neutrals like himself got by babysitting on charms and bribes. Hunk knew from reading that pheromones and scent glands were a part of the caregiving process, but he supposed reading about it in textbooks was probably not quite comparable to the actual experience. While Hunk was curious what certain scents smelled like, he was grateful to NOT have smells controlling his urges, thank you very much.

Lance beamed at the seemingly open question, kids his ‘age’ after all, loved being given a choice. “Can we play tag?” 

Pursing his lips, Hunk glanced at the blanket’s other occupant. Keith didn’t look like he was big enough for a game of tag at all, if Hunk was being honest. Lance probably thought Keith was perfectly fine to get up and run around, but the truth was Keith would be lucky if he managed more than a couple of wobbly steps. He was pretty teeny tiny.  
Hunk knew that Keith was already not a fan of games that were too loud or took him away from an adult. He figured it was either a baby thing or maybe a Keith thing, but not even Shiro could get the little dude to participate in group games. Well. Either way, odds for tag didn’t look good.

“Hmm..do you think Keith is big enough for a game of tag?” Hunk questioned.

“Yeah! Keith runs with me all the time! Watch me! I can run really fast!” Lance squealed, reaching to tug the younger little's wrist. 

Gently grabbing Lance’s hand before any well-meaning play could go wrong, Hunk shook his head. 

“Lance, do you remember who runs with you? Is it big Keith or Little Keith?” 

Lance paused, eyebrows scrunching in thought. 

“…Big Keith..?” 

“mmhmm, and who are you playing with right now, honey?” 

Deflating as he realized where this was going, Lance slumped as he watched Hunk sit down on the play blanket.

“…..Not so big Keith..” he mumbled grumpily.

Hunk smiled sympathetically at the dejected little, trying to provide comfort even as Keith clumsily clambered his way onto his lap. 

Okay.

Disaster averted.

For now.

“Maybe we can play a different kind of game that includes Not-so big Keith, what do you think?” he asked bouncing the little in his lap for emphasis.

“Maybe we can play with Legos?” Lance tried, hopefully.

“If they're big enough that Keith can’t eat the smaller pieces, I don’t see why not. “Hunk said, tilting his head so he could see Lance take off towards the toy box. He shifted his lap as Keith squirmed to get comfortable. A cold nose burrowed into his neck. 

Hunk laughed. “I don’t think I smell that good to you, honey.” As the little took an audible inhale. Grabbing the little's blanket, he draped it over his other shoulder, watching in amusement as Keith's head migrated over and plunged his nose into the fabric. By the way the baby rubbed his face against it, Hunk had no doubt that it was heavily scented with Shiro's own pheromones. 

Lance dashed back to the play area, plunking down with a bin of large glowing blocks. “Keith, look! I founded something for us to play with!” Lance said, dumping the box out onto the blanketed floor. 

Keith lifted his head from the safe-smelling shoulder and peeked over at Lance. Keith loved playing, but it had been awhile since he had a playmate anywhere near his age. Usually, the older kids at the home spoke over him and grabbed things from his hands and sometimes they hit. He didn’t think Lance would hit him since Hunk was safe, but he was nervous to play since Lance had already deemed him bad at playing.

Suddenly, warm hands were hoisting him up from under his arms and plopping him down in front of Lance.

“Here you go, sweetheart. You love playing with the special blocks that Pidge made for you!” Hunk said, giving him a nudge towards the blocks. 

His head was suddenly less full of cotton than it was seconds ago, head turning to longing look at the blankie that smelled like Bubba…it smelled so..good. When Hunk simply gestured for him to start playing Keith hesitantly went for a green block, stacking it on top of a pink one. Lance perked up at his participation, grabbing a red block and stacking it in on top of Keith’s other two. 

“Keith! Lets build the biggest tower in the world!” Lance cajoled with excitement. 

The other little's smile was infectious and Keith hummed his agreement as they worked alongside each other to build a tower. Lance kept talking about random things around the castle while Keith listened. It was…pretty nice, actually to not have to say any words. Usually kids in the home would pester him to speak, pulling his hair and pinching him until he did. Keith thought it might even be ok if an adult wasn’t supervising since Lance had shown no inclination of harming him.

Wanting to show his thanks, he tugged the pacifier out of his mouth and offered the drool-coated object to Lance. 

The blue-eyed boy paused in his long-winded chatter about the time he and Coran played hide and seek to question what Keith was doing. Eyes darting from the pacifier to Keith's puppy dog expression, his eyes lit up as he accepted the raven-haired boy's offering. 

“Oooh! For me? Wow, thanks Keith!” he said, popping the pacifier into his own mouth without preamble, reaching over to give Keith a friendly hug. 

“Aww?? I can’t tell if that was really cute or really gross..” Hunk said as he glanced up from his phone to witness the heartwarming exchange of saliva. 

(In Hunk's opinion it was kind of gross, but saying as much probably wasn’t the best idea)

Sticking his tongue out at Hunk, Keith broke away from the hug and grabbed the last remaining block, adding it to the moderately tall tower. Sitting back to admire his work, he stuck his fingers in his mouth. 

“Now for the bestest part! We gotta knock it over!” Lance exclaimed with a bounce, lisping around the pacifier. That did sound pretty fun… but Keith didn’t know if he was any good at knocking down towers. Bubba usually helped him rebuild something new after gently spreading the blocks out again. But, for his new friend, Keith was willing to give it a try. Mimicking Lance’s position of standing on his knees, he took a swing. 

The littles laughed as the tower fell to the ground with a clang. 

Keith smiled. He was having so much fun! It almost made him forget all of the insecurities that came with being little in a public area where any of the team could see him. Almost. He was also still a little anxious that his new friend would leave him because obviously he was just a baby and couldn’t do as many cool things like play tag or hide and seek. Lance was probably too cool to be seen playing with a baby anyways. Well, Keith hadn't had any friends for awhile anyways, he didn’t need one now. 

“Keith?” Lance touched his shoulder gently. “Why are you crying? Was the tower falling downded too much loud?”

Oh. Keith shook his head ‘no' as he fumbled for some words. Bubba was always telling him that it was important to tell other people how you felt but the emotions felt too big for him to put into words. So, he did what he always did when something was too much. He cried harder. 

A panicked conversation between the rooms two other occupants went right above his head as he tried to curl up and hide. A warm pair of hands hefted him up onto a safe-smelling shoulder. Keith wrapped his arms around their neck, feeling arms support him on his bottom and back. He took a deep inhale as he found a calming scent, his sobs reduced to quiet sniffles as the person gently bounced and swayed. He felt a kiss be pressed to the crown of his head as a litany of reassurances made their chest vibrate comfortingly. Mmm sounded like Hunk. 

They were going somewhere. He lifted his head as the rhythm of footsteps continued without stopping. They had moved to the hallway, Lance trailing behind with a worried look on his face as he held his stuffed puppy. Lance…looked sad even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. He extended a hand to the older toddler, feeling a little better when the little grabbed it. Maybe they were still friends after all. 

Suddenly they were in the kitchen and he was hiked up onto a hip. Not really wanting to deal with the outside world he tucked his head back into Hunk's neck. Under the caregiver pheromones on the blanket draped, Hunk had his own smells. He smelled like warm cinnamon and hugs and sunshine and everything good. Hunk was pretty good, he decided.

Hunk was even better when he set Keith down on his lap and presented him with a bottle, with the only down side being that Lance had to let go of his hand. He latched onto the nipple, draining it's milky contents within minutes. As the older toddler and adult chattered above him. He was just about to drift off when he was interrupted by a hiccup.

Then another. 

“You little guzzle-guts, I told you to slow down!” Hunk said as he threw a towel over his shoulder and sat the baby up against it. With a couple of firm pats, the little burped, spitting up a little milk on the strategically placed towel. 

“Hunk, is the baby okay? Is he still sad?” Lance asked, trying to peek around the neutral’s shoulder to see his friend. 

Smiling in adoration at the considerate little boy, Hunk gently maneuvered so his shoulder was visible from where Lance was sitting at the kitchen table. Keith was lightly dozing in his usual post-milk haze as he happily cooed. 

“He seems pretty happy to me, buddy. Sometimes babies just need a little reminder that they're loved.” Hunk said. 

Lance looked relieved his new friend wouldn’t be sad forever, then nodded.

“Then we should remind Keith more often if it makes him not sad!” The little proclaimed. 

Hunk gave a sad smile. 

“We're going to give him as many reminders as he needs.”

Lance reached out to hold Keith's hand again.

He squeezed.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah uh this one's a little disjointed. But hey, I almost made it to 2k words so woo woo


End file.
